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« on: August 31, 2012, 02:09:45 PM »
Matthew, I disagree that I have forgotten our conversation - I originally submitted a letter to the forum based on what you and I had discussed. I edited it according to the advice of others on the forum who've been through this. Not sending an actual check made sense and I've considered sending a money order instead so they don't have a record of my back account. Keeping things murky - keeping the story to verbal rather than written - also made some sense. But I think you are saying that my original letter is preferred because they already know my story and it showed some teeth. I have researched some ideas on the forum an have included this revision:
I am writing in response to your copyright infringement claim. To reiterate what we discussed on both May 11 and July 16, 2012, our company was given permission by a third party to use any images from their website as one of their 2011 event sponsors, and so your claim was a complete surprise.
Our company has licensed photos with fees ranging from $9.75 to $39.50, and have found images comparable to the one in question for as low as $6.68, and so we are not paying an outrageous fee based on your claim and inflated market value. As a startup company with low assets, we would not have purchased a high-priced image such as this.
Because no copyright registration has been included with your claim, there is no proof that the image in question is actually yours, and so before I will even consider your claim seriously, I am asking you to provide the following information:
1 - Copyright Registration of the image in question.
2 - Signed paperwork from the artist transferring its copyright to Getty.
3 - The formula used to determine the settlement demand.
4 - Sales records, including all fees, of the image.
5 – The exact day the alleged infringement started.
I request that Getty Images cease all communication if you cannot provide me with this information. I further request that Getty Images, their employees, or any other entities they retain not contact me if Getty Images will not prove to me that they own the rights to this image.
If Getty Images or its employees continue asking for settlement without any proof to this claim, I will consider it harassment, and I will file a harassment complaint with the Office of the Attorney General. In addition, follow up letters from you will be posted on the ELI forum and sent to Oscar Michelen.